International Contact Reflection

It has been such a pleasure and incredible opportunity to have had corresponded with my international contact, Mr. Don Giesbrecht, CEO of the Canadian Child Care Federation, over the past two months. With the many demands that his role at the CCCF requires of him, I am so appreciative of the time he gave each week to my many questions.

As a result of connecting with Mr. Giesbrecht, I have a better sense of the challenges that the Canadian early learning community faces and this is of great value to me as a Canadian early childhood teacher as it assists me in understanding the challenges that my present community is facing. In particular, I have a much better sense of the lack of accessibility to high quality programs due to a lack of program space and the high expense of programming to parents in Canada. This is valuable information to me as a kindergarten teacher as it assists me with understanding and supporting the wide variety of skills and experiences of my students as they enter my classroom each fall.

In addition to the benefit of beginning to develop a national understanding of the issues faced by my early learning community, discussions with Mr. Giesbrecht led me to explore his organization’s website. In doing so, I was led to a link to the Let’s Rethink Child Care website and was inspired by their dedication in working towards quality care and education for families in need. As I reflected on what I could do in my community in order to assist these families, I realized that the safe, caring, family-oriented, strength-based approach that I bring to my kindergarten environment every day is a part of these efforts. My awareness of the reality of what I am presently doing to support high quality education has been extremely motivating for me to continue as a classroom teacher at this time.

This process of conversation and collaboration has also led me to an international understanding of the similar challenges that are facing early childhood professionals throughout the world and that there are many in this field that dedicate much time in advocating and speaking for children and their rights to a healthy and supportive childhood. Being open to viewpoints and experiences from around the world has assisted me with building a deeper respect and understanding for these efforts and I feel that these experiences of sharing can universally benefit children and families as we learn and collaborate together.

I am hopeful that the development of consistent standards that support equity and excellence in programming will occur through our universal support for each other. As we share our ideas and experiences, we have examples of program approaches that have been successful and are learning what truly is best for children. With universal discussions continuing, it my hope that those in the power of creating policy have the courage to step outside what has been done before and open their minds and doors in advancing program quality and accessibility for our young children through the proven examples of others.